Friday, July 27, 2012

Like all of us, I have a heavy heart because of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. I’ve not been in a blogging mood this week because of what happened.

I just want to encourage all the Neato Readers out there to keep the people of Aurora in your thoughts and prayers. Visit GivingFirst.org and make a donation. A nice way would be to match the amount you would normally pay to see a movie. The attack at the Century 16 was an attack on all movie goers and movie lovers.

Friday, July 20, 2012

I've always been a fan of PSA characters like Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl and I was thrilled back in 2006 to discover a new character. It was a kangaroo named Parky and I first saw him on this happy chracter at a Kansas rest area. I posted a photo (different than this one) on flickr asking if anyone had any info on Parky. Sure enough the creator himself Samuel Lloyd Hutchinson posted the scoop on ol' Parky in the comments section. It was exciting to learn the origin of Parky and about the artist/cartoonist.

Unfortunately Sam passed away in 2011, but his daughter Stephanie has been doing a great job at keeping his legacy alive. Until July 31st at the Palisades Branch Library in Pacific Palisades, California is an art exhibit featuring Sam's work. Tomorrow at 3pm will be a reception in the library's community room and Stephanie will be on hand to answer questions about her dad. Plus a DVD of one of Sam's "life story" speeches will be shown. I've posted the flyer below and for more info visit SamuelLloydHutchinson.com. (I wish I lived in the area or was visiting, because this event should not be missed.)

For fun, here are some other Parky links of interest -

Click here and scroll to the bottom to view the new updated version of Parky and new character Joey created by Sam. His daughter came up with the new slogan, "Don't Trash Your Parks! Park Your Trash!"

Click here for 1958 photo of a real kangaroo posing with a neat figural Parky sign.

Click here for an excellent post about Sam and Parky at The Hundreds Blog. Be sure to watch the video of Sam drawing a fun looking giraffe!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Yesterday, I read the fantastic Collectors Weekly article Cowboys vs. Spacemen: How the Toy Chest Won by Hunter Oatman-Stanford. The article inspired me to dig out two issues of The American Weekly and show off the neato covers by Robert Hilbert. As much as I love westerns, I'll always side with the spaceman. That's why I love this cover of a boy handing down his cowboy outfit to his little brother in favor of an Atomic Spacesuit.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Game shows in the 1970s and 80s were almost trance inducing to children and the elderly. Maybe that's why I watched hours of screaming contestants, zany hosts and flashing lights with my grandma. One of my favorite shows was Tic-Tac-Dough with the great Wink Martindale. I loved this show so much, that I immortalized its likeness on notebook paper. This is the "beat the dragon" part of the game that I drew when I was nine or ten.

Good thing the contestant picked number three instead of nine! Flip the paper over and I scribbled the prizes behind the game board.

Of course my favorite part of the show was the dragon and here's an up-close view of the green monster behind number three.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

In honor of Comic-Con weekend, I dug out these three snapshots from my found photo collection featuring comic books!

Mother and daughter stand outside of their hometown bank proudly posing with issue #68 of Tip Top Comics. Sheesh, I know times were hard but a bank loan for a ten cent comic is crazy. They should have at least bought Action #1 for a better return on their money.

Now this gal is a serious comic book reader. Besides reading World's Finest Comics #84, she has a comic stack that's taller than she is. I wonder if she ordered the Nutty Putty for a buck?

Now this snap is classic cool! Two kids on a bicycle with a stack of comic books. Someone jotted down a note on the back - "Ken had started to take Dot home on his bike when I got this one, (funny books & all) (ha) Aug. 47." I hope Ken married Dot because any comic book lovin' girlfriend is a keeper!

Any clue as to the comic on top of the Dot's stack of funny books? I tried to figure it out but had no luck. It looks like a humor or funny animal book.

---News Flash--- Neato Reader and eagle eye Glen Mulally solved the mystery of Dot's comic book. The cover on top of the stack is Cookie #3. Thanks Glen for the super sleuth detective work!

Monday, July 09, 2012

Thirty years ago today, Walt Disney's Tron premiered in movie theaters. To help celebrate, here's one of my favorite items from my Tron collection. It's the elusive Tron Mini Flying Disc Shreddies cereal box. This box was only available in Canada, making this a hard box to find for us USA kids. My good pal and fellow cereal box collector Jason Liebig, the CollectingCandy.com guy, surprised me with this box a couple of years ago. Here's Jason's hi-res scan from his flickr archive. (Click on the box for a closer look.)

Jason also included the complete set of Mini Flying Discs and I've scanned these below.

Hopefully Tron will continue to play frisbee for another thirty years! Happy Birthday Tron!!

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Happy Canada Day to all of our Canadian Neato Readers! To celebrate, I've scanned this old postcard of the legendary adventurer Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin. This famous roadside statue was designed by Al Capp in 1962 and is located in Flin Flon, Manitoba!